Natural (and cheap!) fabric softener: Vinegar

Once again, vinegar proves to be a wonder-liquid. A while back, I stopped using dryer sheets to cut back on some of the chemicals. It hasn’t been bad, but my biggest complaint is stiff clothes. Enter vinegar. Turns out, a half-cup or so of vinegar in the rinse cycle softens clothes. And don’t worry about remembering to add it– most machines have a rinse cycle receptacle, or just buy the Downy ball and use it for vinegar instead of liquid fabric softener. And no, your clothes do not come out of the dryer smelling like vinegar — the scent evaporates.

Now, if only vinegar could actually fold my clothes and put them away too!

Do you think clothes on a drying rack would still end up smelling like vinegar? I have the same complaint as Cecily, except with a drying rack. I would love to find an alternative to commercial fabric softener, but I don’t want our clothes to smell like vinegar.

I can second the vinegar-in-the-wash suggestion. It does a beautiful job of softening clothes, plus it removes odors like nothing else.

Now and then, I will run a load of wash and forget to take it out – and living in SW Florida, it doesn’t take long for clothes to sour. I throw in 2 cups of plain white vinegar, run a rinse cycle, and the clothes come out smelling great. In my experience, the vinegar leaves absolutely no smell at all.

Since it is hurricane season, I am not line-drying right now, but if I were, I would certainly give the vinegar a try.

Great tip! I started using vinegar in the dishwasher instead of the rinse agent, but I never thought of it for the clothes. For the dryer, I use about 1 cup liquid fabric aoftner mixed with about 1/2 gallon water. I soak a sponge in the solution, wring it out some then pop it into the dryer with the clothes. Just like the sheets.

Thanks for all your comments! To answer your questions, no I have never found that any of my clothes smell like vinegar, whether they are dried on the line or in the dryer. And while vinegar does slightly soften line-dried clothes, they will not be as soft as when dried in the dryer. Perhaps try throwing the wet clothes in the dryer for a few minutes either before or after line drying to remove the stiffness.

I use baking soda when I start my clothes, and vinegar in the rinse cycle. I did not realize that it could be used as a fabric softener… Thanks for the tip! Now I can give away my dryer sheets :) I’ve been using baking soda to help get clothes cleaner and keep stains at bay. The vinegar I’ve used to help clean clothes better because I wash in cold water, to conserve energy and because it’s gentler on the clothes. Sometimes I throw both baking soda and vinegar in to start, but the result isn’t as good, and throwing just vinegar in at the start works better than just baking soda, if I am not going to keep an eye on it. But It takes about 20 minutes for my washer to get to the rinse cycle, so I usually just set a timer, then use that 20 minutes to do dishes or cook/eat breakfast, since my laundry room is attached to the kitchen.

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